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"The sound of the orchestra is one of the most magnificent musical sounds that has ever existed" — Chick Corea
Ron Levy Music
Ron Levy began studying music from an early age, beginning with piano lessons at age six. He taught himself a bit of guitar in his early teens, studied electronic music, theory, and composition in college, and finally made a full-on immersive study of jazz, all leading to his current professional activities as performer, instructor, composer, and producer.
Ron attended Orange Coast College and continued his musical studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was awarded the Henry Mancini Scholarship for the Composition of Music for Motion Pictures and Television. He received an MA in music composition in 1988.
Ron has worked as a dance accompanist for ballet and modern dance; keyboardist in casual and hotel bands; as musical director for a traveling circus (Teatro Zinzanni); accompanist for Grammy- and Oscar-award winner Paul Williams; played bass (briefly) in a punk (sort of) band – and much more.
Ron loves to compose for instrumental forces both great and small, from solo flute to large orchestra and everything in between (viola, piano, clarinet and bassoon? ... what a combination!). His commissions include South Coast Symphony, Irvine Valley College Orchestra, Orange Coast College Symphony, West Coast Wind Quintet, vibraphonist Jonathan Kipp, flutist Mary Palchak, trombonist Amy Bowers, clarinetist Lea Steffens, soprano Linda Leyrer, and many others.
When not teaching, performing, or composing, Ron enjoys cooking, eating, drinking, and making dad jokes.
Full Bio
My journey with music began fairly early, with piano lessons starting at age 6 - right around the same time I was introduced to the Beatles.
And these two lines – classical and pop – have run parallel throughout my musical journey.
My first lessons were in a tiny room inside a little music store that had an enormous (to me) accordion displayed at the front entrance. I don’t remember much about that first teacher, except that we used the Alfred method —and I do remember the little mustachioed man pointing to various items on the staff — and that is where I learned to read music, which ultimately has served me QUITE WELL!
We soon changed to my second teacher Mrs. Hyde, who taught out of her home. Two Steinway pianos side-by-side; very old fashioned Viennese style. She said more than once that her teacher’s teacher’s TEACHER was Leschetizky. She had very white hair.
We moved to Texas when I was 10, and I believe I did not have piano lessons for that year.
We moved again and I finally resumed lessons when we moved to the San Fernando Valley — studying with Nina Marble. I do have a clipping from the newspaper pre-recital.
(Dig the ascot!)
We moved a little bit south to Playa del Rey – "King's Beach" – and I started lessons with Marie Curea in Santa Monica. I was a nervous performer, and I remember having "the shakes" during the Bach Festival at the church in Santa Monica. I still have the concert program, and was later amazed to see that one of my jazz colleagues out in the world these days is also on that program. My family moved around quite a lot, so I didn’t really know anybody for very long then.
That has since changed, fortunately.
After I really had Debussy’s First Arabesque down around age 14, I asked my mother if I could quit piano lessons, and she surprised me by saying, "Why of course, darling!". I had picked up the guitar: blues, rock, jazz, the usual corrupting influences of a 14-year-old. I did teach myself "Classical Gas" and a Bach prelude on the guitar.
Once I reached High School, my years of practice began to really pay off: I could play in a band now!
Deputy
On our family's cross-country journey westward, I had picked up a deputy badge in some western ghost town, and schoolmate (now bandmate) Jim Sheehan saw it and said: "Well, let's call the band DEPUTY". We played one gig: a high school birthday party. And, one song: "Birthday" by the Beatles.
There are those Beatles again.
In high school, I realized that the skills that were burned into my fingers would stand me in good stead. I wanted to play music with others, and keyboard players were in short supply. The first band I joined played at one party, (we played the Beatles' "Birthday"). I actually played guitar in that band. 3 chords.
I was asked to join another high school band (our cross-town rivals). We played "Bodhisattva" and "White Punks on Dope" so I guess those were kind of lost years in a way. Never mind.
Enter Composition
"Keyboard" meant "synthesizers", and those were becoming widely available so my first composition experience in college was in the electronic music studio, where I spent many late hours.
Yes, the OC Weekly sent in a photographer to capture me at work.
Why? ... we'll never know ...
I took an independent study with composition teacher Dr. Edith Smith which resulted in my first notated pieces for solo piano. I called them Mookwipps, which sounds silly, but it does have "Moog" sort of in there so I guess that kind of makes sense.
After OCC, I transferred to UCLA to complete my undergraduate studies. My interest remained with electronic music as I took the required music history, theory, and breadth courses, along with a new interest: West African Drumming and Dancing (!) with master musician Kobla Ladzekpo. I also met my lifelong friend, pianist and really good guy, Soichiro Matsumoto. He calls me "Lon Revy" :-)
After completing my bachelor's degree, I took a year off to browse thrift stores and play in a punk band. I also started teaching private piano lessons to my younger sister's friends: a ready-made pool of students where I began to develop my teaching chops and discover a lifelong love for teaching music.
The interim year was drawing to a close when I decided to apply for graduate school, and was accepted into UCLA on a scholarship. Why UCLA? They had a Really Big electronic music studio – one of the biggest and best — but (fortuitously, as it turned out) my first composition assignment was to write for (wait for it ...)
🌟 WOODWIND QUINTET 🌟
Well the fact is my first hearing of these instruments up close and personal — BLEW ME AWAY!
The timbres were so rich and way more complex than anything I had heard in the EMS.
I compose "Six Pieces for Woodwind Quintet".
Fast forward, when it came time to propose a thesis project, my professors unanimously said "no! no! no! you must write an instrumental piece". And as it turns out that was an excellent bit of guidance, because my interest in electronic music had waned to the point of extinction at the advent of digital synthesizers, which to me did not have the sound or feel of analog synthesizers at all; whereas meanwhile the sound of acoustic orchestral instruments was completely overwhelming to me in it’s richness and possibility.
Throughout all those years at university I did learn so much — but there was so much more to be learnt! And to do that I needed to get out of those hallowed (and yellowed) walls, and go into that very famous place, the "Real World".
And that is just what I did.
My first stop:
ISOMATA
I had been working with dancers for quite some time (since undergrad at OCC) so my first "real job" as a dance accompanist at Idyllwild school of music and the arts was fitting. I really studied hard to be a good dance accompanist; read every book I could find on the subject. Which was basically one. One book. Pathetic.
I had to figure it out on my own. (One day I may write such a book myself, or at least a compendium of my personal experiences)
I also took every opportunity to compose my own music. First by writing the score to a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night for the Theater Department, which was a lot of fun!
I also composed a fanfare for the graduating class at the end of my first year there, which I entitled Zephyr Dance. Why "Zephyr Dance"? Because "Madeleine Zephyr Dance" was too long!
The instrumental forces at the Academy were not really consolidated yet, so the instrumentation for that short piece is unusual to say the least — but it works.
In the second of my five years at ISOMATA low and behold the wonderful young conductor who had conducted the reading of my masters thesis at UCLA, Jung Ho Pak, was hired as conductor of the International Chamber Orchestra (they got fancy) at ISOMATA.
Jung Ho was a great collaborator and champion of new music; he commissioned two chamber symphonies from me, as well as a unique and hard-to-categorize work – a "Happening" – for chamber ensemble, mixed choir, overhead projector, and audience participation (see what I mean?), entitled "Nice Shirts" (even the title is weird!)
Seeing as nothing was left for me to do after THAT extravaganza, and that after all this time I STILL could not get through a single standard tune by memory, my focus abruptly shifted towards commercial music — JAZZ in particular.
From JAZZ to NOW
I returned to Orange County, to the community college where I had started out as a teenager with the electronic music studio aforementioned, only now with the purpose of learning Jazz. I got wholeheartedly into the Jazz program, started making connections and soon working in the commercial field: first coffee shops, then casuals, and finally hotels. Hey, a guys got to make a living! At least the hotels were fancy ...
After a little while though I gravitated back towards symphonic writing. It was one of my mentors, Alan Remington, who guided me towards symphonic writing. He knew me as a "jazzer", but when he learned of my compositional training, he immediately requested a new piece for the Orange Coast College Symphony.
The result was "Breathless", my first concert work in over seven years.
And so it went, and continues to go: ebbing and flowing between the concert and commercial/jazz music worlds. Since that Breathless performance I have written a few other orchestral works including Pelican Song, Modigliani's Arm, and portions of my magnum opus Flowers and Stones.
I also wrote a piece for concert winds, "Who Killed the Red Baron".
PIANO PRONTO
Folks would ask me if I had written any piano music – and the funny thing is I had never composed anything for solo piano. (Funny because I am a pianist). But that changed when I was approached by Jennifer Eklund to compose pieces for her publishing company, Piano Pronto, geared particularly towards piano teachers and featuring works at the beginning and intermediate level.
The process of writing solo piano pieces demonstrated to me that it is actually the best way for me to start a project that might end up as a work for larger forces. For one thing the piano is my first and main instrument and inspires creativity in the best possible way. It is also much easier to create harmony and structure on a grand staff rather than starting immediately with all those instruments and getting bogged down in the details.
So now I start all my works as solo piano pieces.
I never did like “third stream” music or any kind of integrating jazz elements into classical, but now that is exactly what I have been doing: taking jazz or pop material and using it as a basis to transform into concert music, having found that those materials are vital and current and very malleable. Plus people can relate to them! Odd Beethoven is my most recent piece utilizing this way of working.
FILM MUSIC
I did do some film scoring gigs over the years, including Susan Evans' feature film "Odessa Sleeps."
But I haven't really pursued that line very thoroughly.. there's only so much time. Maybe next life.
